Wrench socket with multi-sided and special shaped driving faces



Sept. 16, 1969 c. w. BOWERS WRENCH SOCKET WITH MULTI-SIDED AND SPECIALSHAPED DRIVING FACES Filed Dec. 4, 1967 m W/ 4 R W m a v w w m a A W M 29 Y m a B n 7 l, 0 2 .2 R n H M n s u R 2 a 2 0 MM W %M 0 f XE UnitedStates Patent O 3,466,956 WRENCH SOCKET WITH MULTI-SIDED AND SPECIALSHAPED DRIVING FACES Charles W. Bowers, Sabina, Ohio, assignor to MacTools, Inc., Sabina, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Dec. 4, 1967,Ser. No. 687,649 Int. Cl. B25b 13/06 US. Cl. 81-121 2 Claims ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE The invention is to a wrench socket having a nut drivingcavity with multi-sided and specially shaped driving members to imparttorque turning loads. Clearance areas exist between the driving membersand have an arcuate wall lying in and bisected by a maximum radius ofthe wrench body cavity, said wall subtending an angle of substantially12 degrees with respect to two radii of the cavity which pass throughthe side edges of the wall. The driving faces are each divided in pairsand a face of each intersect in an inwardly projecting dihedral anglehaving an outside dimension of substantially 150 degrees.

The present invention relates to wrenches and is particularly directedto improvements in socket wrench driving surfaces devised and formed toreduce marring of the contacted surfaces of polygonally shaped, drivenelements under relatively high torque conditions, while precludingdamage to the corners of the driven elements especially when maximumstandard clearances tolerances exist between the driven and drivingsurfaces.

Heretofore wrench structures have been developed which had for theirpurposes the prevention or lessening of the marring effect on thesurfaces of driven elements, such as the heads of bolts or nuts when thewrenches were used to drive, loosen or hold the driven elements underrelatively high torque conditions. These efforts generally resulted inwrench cavity configurations which had a loose or sloppy fit with thedriven elements or which created a tool that although reducing themarring effect on the driven faces produced weakened wrench bodies thatwould tend to burst under said torque conditions.

It is therefore the principal object of the invention to provide astrong wrench body having standard driving faces and which has nutcorner cleraance areas that preclude damage to the nut corners evenunder maximum standard nut and wrench clearance conditions and whichreduces marring of the planar faces of the nut by obviating sharpcorners between the nut driving faces and the clearance areas.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved Wrench havingthe foregoing characteristics that will have a longer life thancomparable wrenches and which also will provide a greater operatingleverage on a driven nut and a consequent lowering of the power requiredto secure the required operating torque for the Wrench.

With these and other objects in view, the following is a description ofthe preferred embodiment of the in- In the drawing, the numeral 9represents in dotted lines a polygonally shaped element such as aconventional, hexagonal nut, a bolt head, or the like, said elementhaving a number of planar faces 10, adjacent pairs of said facesintersecting at dihedral angles to form corners 11. The illustrated nutis to be considered as having standard dimensions for any given size andis Within the maximum-minimum standard dimensions across opposed facesIll-10. It is contemplated that the improved wrench 12 of thisinvention, although shown as a 12-pont wrench, could be manufactured asa 6-point or a 4-point wrench without departing from the scope of theappended claims.

The socket wrench comprises a generally cylindrical body 13 which isprovided at its upper end with a substantially square socket 14 for thereception of the operating stern of a suitable socket Wrench, a motordriven spindle or other actuating member (not shown). The lower end ofthe body 13 is provided with a 12-point work receiving cavity 15 havinga plurality of planar, work contacting nut driving surfaces 16, adjacentdriving faces having formed between them nut corner clearance areas 17.Because of the twelve (12) points provided the illustrated wrench eachof the planar driving faces 16 is divided centrally and is representedin spaced apart pairs and it will be understood that within the wrenchcavity each pair of driving faces has an opposed and parallel pair ofdriving faces; the distance across opposed pairs being the standarddistance for a particular Wrench size, which includes the recognizedstandard clearance between the driven and driving faces for said size.

-It will also be recognized by those skilled in the art that in a6-point wrench constructed in accordance with this invention every othernut clearance area 17 and associated driving face would be omittedtherefrom and that a 4-point wrench would have the configuration of thesquare socket 14 (FIG. 2) described hereinbefore which also has cornerclearance areas 17 located between planar faces 170.

Now with particular reference to FIG. 4 of the drawing illustrating therelaxed coaxial positions of the wrench cavity 15 and the hexagonal nut9, it will be noted that each standard planar driving face 16 of thecavity meets with an adjacent planar driving face 16 in the cornerclearance area 17 and in accordance with this invention each clearancearea has an outside arcuate wall 18 lying in and bisected by the maximumradius R of the wrench body cavity, said wall subtending an angle ofsubstantially 12 with respect to two other such radii R, and R of thewrench cavity which pass through the side edges of the wall 18. Statedanother way the included angle between the radius R which bisects theWall 18 and a radius R or R is approximately 6.

Angularly spaced apart on each side of the wall 18 to define the lateralboundaries of each clearance area 17 are inwardly divergent, planar sidewalls 19 and 20 each lying in a plane disposed at a substantiallyoutside dihedral angle with respect to the planar driving face 16 of thewrench cavity with which it is associated. The foregoing dimensions andmeasurements would obtain for all wrench sizes in 4, 6 and 12-pointmodels and with respect to the 12-point wrench depicted in FIG. 4 of thedrawings it will be noted that each planar driving face 16 of the wrenchcavity is divided in pairs and that the radius R of the wrench cavityintersects the inwardly projecting dihedral angle formed by adjacentpairs of said planar driving faces, said planar faces forming an outsideangle of approximately Adjacent pairs of planar driving faces meetcommon side walls 19 and 20 of the clearance area 17 at inwardly facingdihedral angles cut by planes 21 and 22 disposed parallel to and equallyspaced from the radius R, the spaced apart distance D of the planes 21and 22 for a 3 particular six inch wrench size opening being computed bythe radius R times .395 (R .39S). As shown in FIG. 4 the outside anglebetween each side wall 19 and 20 of a clearance area 17 and the planes21 and 22, respectively, is substantially 30.

It will therefore be understood that I have provided a wrench cavityhaving standard planar driving faces and included nut corner clearanceareas which is devoid of sharp corners that weaken the wrench bodyaround such corners and cause fracture of the body under high torqueconditions. As pressure is applied contact of the planar driving faces16 is made at points away from the nut corners 11 where the improvedwall thickness of the socket is relatively thick by reasons of aparticular configuration of the clearance area 17. The socket by makingcontact with the nut away from but close to the corners will have agreater torque and because the corners are not sharp the socket will nottend to mar the driven faces of the nut. Further the driving faces ofthe socket have standard dimensions and will therefore satisfactorilydrive nuts and bolts that are sometimes manufactured to minimumtolerances without sticking to the bolt or nut when especially highdriving torque is applied thereto by my wrench.

What is claimed is:

1. In a wrench for turning objects of polygonal configurationscomprising a wrench body having a cavity formed by a plurality ofopposed standard object engaging planar driving surfaces, and clearanceareas disposed between adjacent driving surfaces for receiving thecorners of said objects, the improvement that consists of each clearancearea having an arcuate outside wall bisected by and lying on a maximumradius of the cavity and subtending an included angle of substantially12 with respect to two radii of the cavity, and a planar side wallbounding each side of each clearance area and intersecting the planardriving faces of the concavity at an outside angle of substantially 2.In a wrench as set forth in claim 1 wherein the opposed standard objectengaging planar driving faces are each divided in pairs, and a face ofeach pair intersect in an inwardly projecting dihedral angle having anoutside dimension of substantially planes parallel and on opposite sidesof a radius of the cavity bisecting the dihedral angle being disposed atoutside angles of 30 with respect to each planar side wall bounding eachside of each clearance area.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,685,219 8/1954 Diebold 81-1193,079,819 3/1963 Wing 81l21 3,125,910 3/1964 Kavalar 81121 3,242,7753/1966 Hinkle 81-121 X 3,273,430 9/1966 Knudsen et al 81--121 FOREIGNPATENTS 678,464 1/ 1964 Canada.

281,431 12/ 1927 Great Britain.

864,514 4/ 1961 Great Britain.

602,687 3/1960 Italy.

MYRON C. KRUSE, Primary Examiner

